Sudan approves Darfur mission, UN says

African Union troops are already patrolling villages and camps in Darfur. Picture / Reuters.

KHARTOUM - Sudan has agreed to allow an African Union-United Nations assessment mission into the country, ahead of a possible deployment of UN troops to enforce a peace deal in Dafur, the UN has said.

Speaking after a meeting with Sudanese President Omar Hassan al-Bashir, the UN's Lakhdar Brahimi said: "We agreed that in the coming days the United Nations and the African Union will send a joint assessment mission to Sudan."

The Sudanese government and the main Darfur rebel faction signed their peace agreement on May 5. Two other factions refused to sign saying it did not meet their basic demands.

Prior to the deal, Sudan had rejected a UN takeover from ill-equipped African Union (AU) forces in Darfur.

But it has since said it would negotiate with the world body over the mandate and size of a possible force in the western region.

Mr Brahimi said the mission, including military experts, would start work in Khartoum and then go to Darfur where he said it would assess the immediate needs of the AU force.

It "would also undertake an assessment of all the requirements for a possible transition from the AU to the UN", he told reporters in Khartoum.

Sudan's agreement missed a deadline of Tuesday night set by the UN Security Council to allow the mission to begin work.

But given Sudan's previous outright rejection of a UN force, Mr Brahimi said this was a "positive first step".

In New York, UN chief spokesman Stephane Dujarric said no date had yet been set for the assessment mission's departure.

The African Union earlier this month urged the government to cooperate with the United Nations and help the AU transfer its peacekeeping mission in Darfur to UN troops.

Tens of thousands of people have been killed and more than two million herded into camps during three years of rape, murder and looting in Darfur.

The United States calls the violence genocide, a charge Khartoum rejects.

- REUTERS